Man & Child Chapter 1
by HemiChops
Summary: Riddick finds someone from his past and reveals more himself...EDITED FROM PREVIOUS VERSION 9-18-03


Man and Child   
Chapter 1 - Secrets

Kylie's eyes refused to focus, her brain refused to think. Too much of whatever those geeks had pumped into her on the merc ship. Too many thought processes of who had her now, and why. _'Where am I? Who did this? Whose scent is that; I recognize it? Who? Who?'_

"I think its more important to ask 'Where?'" a deep, nearly silent voice asked. Sitting on his heels about three feet away from her was a thickly muscled brute of a man in a tight black tank top and well fitted black microfiber pants. Kylie scrambled a bit, then realized the restraints on her arms and legs, and the leather strap that served as a gag wrapped in her teeth. He had left her the use of her eyes, nose and ears, but little else. It was him. It could be no other. There was no doubt in her mind. Him.

In his large hand, Kylie could see something glinting in the dim light at the back of the passenger hold. She watched as he raised that hand to his head, skimming the blade of the short, but apparently razor-sharp, shiv against his scalp, leaving a bluish stripe of freshly shaven skin. Normally, this act would have been for sheer intimidation. But he had seen that Kylie still wore her rings. His gold band now rested in its rightful place on the third finger of his left hand. This time, the act was out of sheer necessity, and that alone. Kylie, who had already seen Riddick in every possible way, was the last person he would try to intimidate. She knew him too well. She would have laughed in his face. 

Observing him intently, she noticed his entire body was covered in fine dust, and the shiv had no handle. There was a large, open gash in his thigh with a shirt tied around it as a makeshift tourniquet. But, overall, he was still the man she remembered, and he still looked just as good as he had. But it had been two years.

Suddenly, her voice thundered into his head, loud and clear. And angry. "So how many have you fucked since me?" Her telepathic voice came off meaner than she actually was, but he imagined she was justified in her accusations. He considered this for a moment, rolling his weight forward onto his toes, then back to his heels again. Finally, his face broke into a look of indifference. Hers was a look of anger, hurt, almost hatred.

"Nobody," he growled, scraping the shiv over his scalp again. He grabbed a t-shirt from nearby and used it to mop the excess lather from his skull before lifting the dark goggles from his neck back up to his eyes. It had been over two years since they had seen each other, and now, his brain tickled as she learned his memories again. Slowly, so she could keep her mental hold on his mind, he stood. 

Finally, the pleasant tingling his head subsided, and a much calmer Kylie said telepathically, "I never asked you to defend me." Her look softened, and her eyes grew large, her mind silenced by deep thought.

Riddick walked over to her, careful to only show his disgust at not hearing her voice through his ears. He grabbed the leather strap around her head and untied it, letting it fall to the floor of the skiff. As he did so, he whispered, "I wasn't about to let a fuckin' baby killer go without a fight."

"Yeah, and that baby killer got you into the slam for two years, leaving me without visitation rights. Not even a fucking conjugal visit for Christ's sake! Two years, Rick!" Kylie whispered back intensely. Hearing her use the name that was so rarely used in his presence now, Riddick clamped a hand over her mouth. 

"That psycho fuck killed our son," he reminded her, "and would have killed you. If you can live with that, great," he said roughly, pausing for a moment to gauge her reaction, "but I can't." Riddick looked into Kylie's eyes intensely, a wave of nausea flowing over his body as the memory of what had happened so long ago came over him.

"Riddick," a voice that was young, but could have been either male or female, called from behind the pilot's seat. "We don't have much time until we land." Without another word to Kylie, Riddick turned and headed for the skiff's cockpit. 

The merc ship they had run into about 49-50 hours back had been a few passengers heavy. Riddick had, without giving them any name to tack onto him, told them they could only take one of their extra passengers. He told them that the skiff already had too many onboard as it was. When he had seen Kylie, the flood of memories that had come rushing back to him was unbearable, and he had to take her with him. 

She had gotten onto the merc ship after being caught stealing a large amount of food and clothing from a storage house not far from where the two ships had met up. A petty thief wouldn't bring a merc dick anyway, and Riddick pulled her onto the ship. She had been bound and gagged after she tried to start a fight with another loose passenger. After biting and scratching a number of the crewmen on the ship, they all decided to tie her up and leave her in the back of the hold by herself, where she couldn't cause any trouble. So far, it had worked out nicely. 

Jack's voice interrupted Riddick's thoughts as he took the captain's chair, begging the question, "You know her, don't you?" 

Riddick simply nodded, glad his left hand was facing away from her. "We were foster kids together a bunch of times when we were younger. We were good friends," he explained.

An amused smile crossed Jack's young face. "More than friends?" she asked impishly. The smirk on her face would normally have been amusing, but right now, Riddick was too overwhelmed.

He simply smiled at her naïveté, and didn't lie to her. He simply showed her the back of his left hand, letting her see the gold band. "A lot more," he said, barely more than a whisper. 

In those three words, Jack and Imam, who had sat praying behind him the whole trip, heard more emotion than they ever prayed to hear from Riddick. It was both exhilarating and frightening at the same time. It meant that Riddick had a weakness, something that made him human, and vulnerable. Man, and child. 

© 2003 Sarah J. Ginter, and ©2003 HemiChops Productions, Inc. 


End file.
